Bloody Rose
by lilpumpkingirl
Summary: Vash won the battle with Knives, but fate refuses to give him the peaceful existence he yearns for. Struggle with him as he fights for 'love & peace' as new players join the fray that could destroy not just the human populous, but all of Gunsmoke... and perhaps the universe?
1. Prologue: The Lost Wanderer

- Prologue -

The Lost Wander

The twin suns hung high in the cloudless sky. Rays of crushing heat shimmered over the rolling, wave chopped sand dunes. In any direction sparkling images of vast seas appeared, tempting weary travelers to wander from their plotted course and to their thirsty deaths. Nearing the crest of a dune was one such traveler, the heat of the glaring suns made worse by his black outfit and the weight of the unconscious man over his right shoulder and back. This man knew better. He knew that those vast seas were only mirages - tricks of the suns and harsh gritty sand. And yet, at time he still found himself mindlessly veering off towards them. Most times he caught himself and corrected his position due west.

His bright blonde hair hung limp from sweat, teal eyes squinting from the harsh suns' glare in spite of the round shaped yellow tinted glasses that reflected the dunes. With each step red pools were left, clumping in the sand before a soft breeze kicked up the gritty particles and covered them, hiding all trace of his passage. Stumbling, he righted himself with a pained grunt, not stopping in his forward momentum. He couldn't afford it. Three days in this flaring hot sun and two chilly nights, his wounded body was reaching its limit.

"Oi-oi-oi..." Vash wheezed, shifting the weight of his dying brother back over his shoulders after another stumble. "I really... should think... my plans through."

He may have defeated his twin in the battle that decided the fate of Gunsmoke's human population, but his plans to help his brother see why they needed them -or lack thereof- were pointless if they both died out here in the middle of nowhere. Not to mention, he had a promise to keep. With this thought Meryl's face danced in the dry air before him. She stood. No, more like floated before him. Those gray eyes with flakes of purple pinched with frustration. Mouth taut, pressed into a thin line. Her hands were crossed before her, looking as if she were about to scold him, and he could barely hear her voice drifting on the breeze, _"How dare you die on us, Vash."_ Ah, her scolding never got old. He smiled lazily.

And of course there was Milly too. The giant woman -who stood an inch shorter than him- appeared, floating behind the other woman, dwarfing her easily. She stared back at him with her warm lax smile and sparkling brown eyes that noticed more than anyone else he knew. Would those eyes be sad now? Dimmed with Wolfwood's death? The two had grown close with the events prior to the fight with the last two Gung-Ho Guns.

He missed his insurance girls. They had a knack for finding him at the strangest times. What he wouldn't give for them to pop up suddenly and save his lousy hide now. _Yeah, that would be great._ He sighed. _And some doughnuts wouldn't hurt either._

His thoughts drifted, wandering the parched memories in the shadows of his mind - a lost traveler flipping through old movie reels of his life. In his haze the suns crept along, orbs inching through the blue sky to the horizon's edge. It wasn't until a sharp chilly gust of wind blasted him, making him trip to the left and nearly fall over, that he realized day had given way to night and the five moons of Gunsmoke glinted in the starlit heavens. He looked around, bemused. _I should have reached Eastwind by now._ And yet there wasn't a soul in sight, nor the shine of light from a town in the distance.

"This is... no good," he murmured, only for the use of his voice to burn his throat and forced him to stop walking as he hunched over, a bout of ragged coughing quaking his body.

Once the fit ceased he licked his cracked lips, deciding it was best not to talk anymore and pushed on. Walking, and walking, and walking, his mind filtered through fragmented thoughts and memories, unable to hold on to much of any coherent thought. He knew not how much time had passed from the last time he consciously realized he was in trouble when his next step gave way with the slopping sand and he slipped. He managed to correct himself, running down the sand dune, his wounds complaining something fierce. Then his weary foot caught in the sand and he stumbled forward, throwing both him and his brother and they fell end-over-end down the slope. Each impact hurt, but not as bad as when the sand gave way to hard basalt.

Jarring. Rough.

It nearly knocked him unconscious. But he held on somehow.

Then the basalt disappeared, and he felt as if he hung in the air weightless for a lifetime. That was until gravity remembered itself and he found himself falling into... clouds. Through squinted eyes -his glasses long gone- he stared amazed by the swirling gray and dark blue clouds. _Rain clouds? _ They were wet, charged particles that made his hair stand-on-end. He knew only of them from those vids Rem had shown him long ago on the SEEDS ship. The massive rolling storm clouds that could bring tornados and lightening flares. Nothing like them existed on Gunsmoke for the desert planet had no seas or huge masses of water to power them.

Seconds later he fell out of the bottom of the clouds. He stared up at the rumbling mass, startled by the droplets of water. Just above him he could see the hazy mass of his brother, falling with him. Wonder. Pure childish delight filled him. Only to plunge into water below, swallowing him up as he saw the dark murky surface disappear, giving into the cold world of darkness as he sank. The water pulsated, pushing him deeper as his brother entered.

Closing his eyes - he found it so easy, imagining letting himself give in. Letting him and his brother simply end here, in this unknown mass of water. Humanity would no longer have to worry. Knives would be gone. He would be gone. But just as easily he remembered his friends. Wolfwood. Lena and her grandmother. The children he played with. Gardenia, the woman he saved from slavery three -or was it four?- years ago. Milly... Meryl.

His eyes snapped open with her name. The lack of air was starting to pain him and he coughed. Barely managing to hold himself together, he used what little strength his weary body had left and swam awkwardly to his brother. He never realized how difficult it was, never having the need to learn. He gabbed Knives' wrist and jerked for the surface, struggling with their joint weight. Would he be able to do it?

His head broke the surface and he gasped for air - amazed that he had done it. Dimly he made sure his brother's head was above the surface before swimming for the shore he could see in the distance. Kick, kick, arm, kick, kick, arm. It was all he could think about, the edges of his vision blurring.

Reaching the bank -only God knew how much later- he flopped both of them onto land and panted, clutching the muddy dirt and plants. Next to him Knives' coughed, freeing his lungs, water splashing on the sides of his mouth. He fell silent, still unconscious. Drifting in and out himself, Vash laid there, about ready to give in. A sound, grass bending under a foot, drew his attention forward just before he slipped away and he looked up, finding a silhouette -and a flash of vibrant red tentacles fluttering in the darkness.


	2. Ivy Green

- Chapter 1 -

Ivy Green

Slipping in-and-out of awareness, Vash floated, cradled within an endless sea of milky white. His blonde hair wafted lazily and the warm liquid embraced his naked flesh. He sighed. The seemingly magical substance allowed him to breathe as it tingled his skin, cleansing his wounds. It reminded him of a time before memories. Of Knives crying beside him. Of his mother -his birth mother. Of comfort and of safety.

At the same time this place was different. Unfamiliar, and not same. For one, the water smelt of vanilla mangos with a pinch of earthly sage. His mother's cocooning sphere had smelt of woods. More than that was the memories. Beneath closed lids his eyes moved, on such memory playing for him. He drifted along, a ghost traveling through a bizarre forest with white trees whose branches were a vibrant cherry red, crowned with golden leaves that swayed in the breeze. Animals with long floppy ears, skin of shimmering scales, and eyes of blue, munched on teal grass only for their long necks to jerk up, as if sensing him and scatter, all disappearing within dark lavender shrubs.

There was another's knowledge within the memories. The knowledge that each tree belonged to a sister, a guardian. Beautiful, deadly creatures with red tentacle hair with strands that were as thick as fingers and moved on their own, and skin white as the bark of their trees with golden amber eyes. They stood seven feet tall, touching other plants and signing to them, buds spouted and blossomed at their beckoning. Their long ears twitched, one or two looking in his direction, but more or less ignored him.

Well, ignored the person the memories came from.

_"They feared me."_

A woman's voice said softly, a pinch of sadness evident as the melodious sound reverberated everywhere around him. He wanted to turn his head to look, but the memory drove him forward, walking along an earthen path. It was then he saw them. The male kin of the sister guardians, they were working to gather fuzzy black fruit from smaller types of trees with big bushy yellow leaves and orange spots. They stood, half a foot shorter than their sisters with hair fine as spindled glass and silver moonlit eyes that almost appeared like mirrors as three turned their heads to stare.

To stare and glare at him as recognition swept over those few and nudged those closest to them. Vash felt a shiver of dread tremble down his spine as more and more stopped and brought their heads up. He took a step back, afraid, before a hand pressed firmly on his back between his shoulder blades, urging him to continue up the path. The dread vanished as he looked up at the person, a sister who smiled kindly. Nodding towards the crest of the hill where the path led. He looked finding the biggest tree in the forest. The name of it was foreign, illegible to him and yet he knew that it meant heart tree, oldest of the forest and mother to all the tree folk.

_"Leave my memories in the past,"_ the woman spoke again, a tender pull away from the bright otherworldly images as he felt hands grasp his face. And yet, the longing to stay and see the giant mother tree close up lingered. _"They are only painful remains of ashes."_

He opened his eyes, at first a thin sliver seeing only white. Then slowly, lazily, he drew the heavy lids up to find the blurred form of her in the whiteness. As his eyesight became clearer the first thing he noticed was her lively red hair waving around her head. Just like the sister guardians in the memories. Only with her being not but a foot from him he could see the segments in the thick strands and the way they sparkled, almost like rubies held up to the sun.

But that was the only pure characteristic she shared with the sisters.

The most catching difference was her eyes that were glowing ivy green. Her face, while sharp and highly angled, was less alien and more... human. Oh, and she too wore not a stitch of clothing as her delicate fingers held his face and floated before. Her skin instead of pale white was warm honey, every inch of her kissed and loved by the suns. She smiled at his wandering gaze, and if he had half a sense he would have flushed and averted his eyes.

He didn't have his mind though. It was sluggish as each second felt like hours that clang to him and he felt himself staring at her far longer than appropriate. And her fingers -God, her fingers were amazing- they caressed his pricked cheeks, drawing out the pain from the gash just beneath his left eye and the bruises and the burns from the sun. They glided down his neck, touching first the newest bullet wounds in his shoulder, right arm, and hip, beckoning his skin to heal just as her kin had done to the flowers.

His eyes fluttered, breathing deeper.

_"These scars." _ He opened his eyes, realizing she spoke telepathically. _"They hurt you so..."_

Her delicate fingers grasped the metal grid that held the skin and muscle together on the right side of his chest. Without warning she tore the metal away, the pain searing up for a second before the warm liquid numbed and eased the bulk of the pain, becaming a dull throb. Even that too disappeared as her hands fluttered over the scar, imploring the old wound and harden flesh to soften and grow anew. One by one she did this to all his old aches, healing them until only a faint outline remained of what once was raw and startling. And unable to comprehend what he saw, he simply stared.

A lifetime passed. Perhaps two. But she diligently worked, touching and caressing, her hands never once leaving him. At times he even let his eyes close, basking in the warmth and energy she replaced the aches with. When the last of old scars was gone, her hands drifted up, back to his face and the pads of her thumbs rubbed across his cracked lips.

_"I am sorry," _she said, the hint of sadness drew his eyes open.

Confused, he glanced down at himself then back up at her. _"Why, you healed me. All of me."_

Her ivy green eyes went to his left arm. _"Not all of you..."_

Yes, she was right of course. His mechanized left arm still remained. A reminder of Knives and all the pain he had dragged him through. And yet... _"Where is my brother?"_

_"Safe."_

She turned her head to the side, offering nothing else and he did not have the thought to ask more as his eyes closed.

_"Rest, Vash the Stampede." _Then added more light heartedly, _"I may have a way to heal that arm yet."_

.~-~.

She came back to him many times after that, speaking little and shooing away her memories of the world he saw so much of and yet knew so little -always seeming to know when things were about to be revealed. This time was no different. Well, maybe slightly different. He had been floating in the sea of milky white as usual, his skin tingling and yet in his mind he lay arms crossed behind his head in a field of blooming white flowers. The air sweet and the blue sun lighting the sky in an angelic light and puffy silver lined clouds drifted along.

If this world was not the heaven Rem spoke of, he knew then not what it could possibly be.

And yet the woman held a sort of aloft feeling to this place, dreaming of the stars and a place to belong. At the same time there was a bitter remembrance, a knowledge she gained later after losing it all. Vash had tried to hold onto these feelings, examine them and in turn the mysterious creature that was helping him. But they slipped away like falling rain.

Of course he had questions. The longer he spent in this place -whatever _here _was- his awareness slowly returned. Perhaps growing immune to the chemical haze it instilled. That mattered not for whenever she returned those questions and thoughts escaped him, becoming much like her memories and thoughts and melted away. _I will remember this time, I will ask._ He had told himself relentlessly. All to no avail. This place was her domain and if she did not wish him to know or ask, he would not, could not.

When she entered the milky liquid, he felt it - the sensation stronger than normal. Then she appeared lying next to him in a gown of emerald and stated, _"You like this meadow."_

_"I've become fond of it, yes. What is this place?"_

She only smiled at the blue sun and shifting silver clouds.

Tilting his head, he spied her from the edge of his vision. There was a tenseness to her that had not been there other times. He wondered briefly as to why when a flash of her thoughts bounced around through his mind. His brother. He had tried to hurt someone. Someone important to her. No harm had come of it, but her concern lingered. And yet... that wasn't the only issue troubling her.

Him. He was.

Vash propped himself up onto his right arm, his shadow falling over her. _"It's okay if there is no way to heal my arm." _Bring the arm in question before him he opened and closed his hand slowly. _"I have grown fond of it as well. It has served-"_

_"I can... make the arm yours again." _He blinked. She turned her head, ivy green gaze focusing on him. _"It will not be your old arm, but a hybrid of the technology you have now with organic material."_

_"You mean I-"_ He examined his arm in wonder. _"I can still use it as a gun?"_

She gave a small nod, looking back up at the blue sun.

_"How?"_ Curiosity budded within him, wishing answers and yet knowing he wouldn't get any.

As the silence pressed on, he frowned, realizing something else. _"What must you do to... do this?" _He waved his arms before resting it on his side. _"Will it harm you?"_

She snorted. _"No. It will take a lot out of me... and you, but there is no harm."_

Relieved, he beamed. _"Then let us do it."_

Their eyes locked. Then she moved, a flash of movement, and he lay on his back once more, her straddling his hips. His cheeks tinged pink but unable to form words as she leaned down, caging his head on either side. Finally he blurted out, "W-Wha," when she cut him off, her soft lips touching his. A spark. A kindling jolt, searing hot as any lightning strike flared through him and alighting his senses. He had thought the hands euphoric when she healed him, but her lips? The spark from the kiss rattled him to his core and made him hunger for more.

Before he gained any conscious thought of himself, he returned her kiss as his hands went through her red hair. The feeling of it strange for how thick it was and yet softer than silk. For what felt like years, they were locked there. No thinking. Just feeling the excited sparks they generated. But without warning she pulled back, panting over him. Her ivy green eyes wide, startled by both their reactions.

She licked her moist lips. _"I... I will have to be connected to you... to make this work."_

He tensed, hands moving from her hair to her shoulders and yet smiled his careless smile. _"I can't ask that of you, my strange friend. You have already done so much and yet I don't even know your name or who you are."_

_"And you care for another," _she whispered, looking at the crushed flowers beneath her left hand.

Vash's breathe seized in his lungs, knowing instantly to whom he referred. It jarred him so much that the magical world he lay in disappeared for a second, flashing to the milky white sea and him holding her, only for the meadow to return. _Meryl._ He had not once thought of her in this place. It hurt him, to just now think of her, and yet... The back of his fingers caressed the mysterious creature's cheek. Her eyes closed.

_"I would ask how you know this, but I guess it must be the mental connection that lets me see pieces of your world." _She nodded. _"If that is the case, you also know the reason why I can never follow that out."_

_"She is human. You are not. If you really wished it, this would not stop you."_ Her eyes opened and a knowing glint flashed in them before she met his teal eyes. _"You are hiding behind excuses, Vash the Stampede."_

He gave a frustrated sigh, her words mirroring exactly the argument he had with himself multiple time. _"Perhaps. But I get everyone I know killed..."_

One brow rose, amusement glinting in her ivy eyes. _"She will follow you nevertheless." _

It was his turn not to answer. Deciding he would take her route and remain silent. She smiled, leaning down so she rested on her forearms. The fingers of her left hand started brushing the side of his forehead and her gaze went there, smiling slowly falling to sadness.

_"She may die with you, but she could easily die away from you as well. The Fates' are fickle..." _She then added softly, _"They brought you to me."_

Her melancholy resonated with his. Hidden carefully beneath a solid vale, he almost missed it and yet, he could see it in her eyes. She was alone. Trapped in a life of solitude much like was. It reminded him of something... someone. But who? _Those eyes... green. They had been green... she had been... _Her eyes snapped to his, as if hearing his thoughts and he got the feeling that they worried her.

She abruptly kissed him again, ceasing all thoughts.

His body responded to her urgency and twisted it as he held her, touched her, and made her forget herself equally. The kiss deepened, and neither of them stood a chance as the flames grew -each touch adding fuel to the rumbling fire. He grabbed her hips, the green gown bunched as it was and her with no underlings in the world that was only a dreamscape, nothing hindered him as he brought her down and entered her.

.~-~.

Vash gasped, sitting upright in a bed, beads of sweat dripping down his brow and back. The drastic change from... _that_, to the plan room with a one other bed, a bare table and one lone chair was almost as startling as the dream itself. Panting, he calmed himself, teal gaze surveying his surroundings, the same as they had been every other time. At the other wall, by the one window was Knives, sitting upright in bed and staring out the window at the starlit street.

"You dreamed of her again?" he asked, briefly glancing sideways at him before returning to watching a drunken couple try and walk back home, they stumbled and fell into a piled heap of arms and limbs and giggles. He glared at them. "I'm telling you... It happened."

Sighing, Vash leaned against the wall with his arm propped up on a knee. The truth was: he too believed it was real, at least in part. How else could one explain their wounds healing... as well as his old scars? Then there was his arm. He stared at it, flexing it in the moonlight that glittered the dust that floated in its path. The mechanical insert at his bicep was gone, replaced with smooth skin that was a slightly darker color. It was his. He had his left hand back. And he still didn't know how to make it into a gun as she said he could.

Then there was the issue of the woman. She may have healed them both somehow -in the middle of nowhere -he still wasn't certain that what he was now dreaming and what Knives remembered was the truth. How could it be? The images were so wild and fanciful that it all felt... well, like dreams. Not to mention, both of them had fully woken up in this inn with the old woman, Mrs. Flanagan, tending to them. He nearly had a heart attack about that until the older woman said a wanderer found them in the desert, dehydrated but alive and managed to haul them to town on her horse. They both had been running fevers and speaking of incoherent things in their sleep when the wanderer dropped them off and disappeared without a word.

Nothing strange about that, things like it happened all the time on Gunsmoke.

"I don't know, Knives... Plants like us?" Vash shook his head. He grunted, flexing his arm, trying to make it change. It didn't work. It never did. He let it rest against the bed and looked to his brother. "That's a stretch at best; we haven't ever run into others like us."

He huffed. "The one who healed you... I don't know about her. But the four who healed me were plants."

"Where did they come from? They look nothing like our sisters."

Knives shrugged.

Vash shifted, moving to the edge of his bed and planted his feet on the cold wood planks. "Fine." He relented, "We will go searching for her." Knives' head jerked to see him, excitement and something else flickering on his face -it disappeared before he could see what. "But only after I stop by some friends."

His brother's face fell. Then he sighed, rolling his eyes. "Those insurance girls are worthless, brother. I don't know why you're so attached to them."

Standing, Vash stretched, feeling the pull of his healed muscles and the lack of hard scar tissue. "Do we have a deal?" Then stopped stretching and added, "And no killing anyone along the way, okay?"

Knives didn't exactly glare at him, but a strange look did cross his face before he turned away, staring back out the window. "I... agree to your terms."

Vash blinked, arms falling to his side as he stared at his brother dumbfounded. He had thought it would have been far more difficult than that to get his brother to agree. Scratching the back of his head, he chuckled. "Well then, let's get some breakfast before we go, shall we? I was thinking of this nice little stall that sells doughnuts."

~~~~.~-~.~~~~


End file.
